Macroeconomic Outlook Report: South Korea
Summary
In 2025, the largest share of overall gross value added (GVA) came from mining, manufacturing, and utilities, accounting for 31.5%. Financial intermediation, real estate, and business activities followed with a 21.4% contribution, while wholesale and retail trade together with accommodation services accounted for 11.1%. Looking ahead to 2026, these sectors are projected to expand in nominal terms by 4.7%, 4.6%, and 4.8%, respectively.Seoul, Busan, and Incheon contributed 30.0% of the country’s GDP and accounted for 30.3% of the country’s population in 2025, according to the analyst.
The KOSPI Index exhibited a sharp rising trend over the past year. As of August 17, 2026, the index stood at 6977.9, compared to 3225.7 on August 17, 2025.
Scope
- Macroeconomic Country Outlook Reports evaluate a country's investment potential through its political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) framework.
- This comprehensive analysis offers a holistic view of the economy, serving as a strategic tool to understand market dynamics, business potential, and operational direction.
- Each PESTLE factor is examined based on four parameters: current strengths, current challenges, future prospects, and future risks. These insights support strategic planning by highlighting opportunities and risks within the economy, helping businesses and investors make informed decisions.
- The report aims to provide a detailed understanding of the country's macroeconomic environment to facilitate effective decision-making and strategy development.
Reasons to Buy
- Macroeconomic Outlook Report identifies the potentials of the country as an investment destination by analyzing the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) structure.
- PESTLE Insights provides 360 degree view of the economy which can be used as a strategic tool to understand the market dynamics, business potentials and direction of operations
- Along with providing the country’s snapshot, the report captures the risk factors pertaining to the macroeconomic risks, political environment, legal environment, demographic and social structure effectiveness, technology & infrastructure and natural and geographic aspects that might impact business.
- This report also highlights key clusters/cities which contribute significantly to the country GDP and population along with major companies’ presence in these areas.
Table of Contents
List of Exhibits- Did You Know?
- Country Highlights
- Key Economic Updates and Impact of US Tariffs
- Country Snapshot
- Political Landscape
- Economic Landscape
- Social Landscape
- Technological Landscape
- Legal Landscape
- Environmental Landscape
- Outlook
- Exhibit 1: South Korea’s Performance in Country Risk Analysis in Comparison to Asia-Pacific and World Averages
- Exhibit 2: Performance Overview (Score: 0-100)
- Exhibit 3: Broad Categories and Weights Behind the Index
- Exhibit 4: KOSPI Index (August 2025-AUGUST 2026)
- Exhibit 5: Key Sectors’ Contribution to the Economy (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 6: FDI Flows and FDI Stock (2021-25)
- Exhibit 7: Greenfield FDI Projects and Net Cross-border M&A Deals (2021-25)
- Exhibit 8: Key Infrastructure Indicators
- Exhibit 9: Real GDP and Household Consumption Growth Rate (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 10: Real GDP Growth Rate Comparison (2025)
- Exhibit 11: Volume of Export and Import of Goods and Services Growth (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 12: Current Account Balance (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 13: Top Three Commodity Exports, % of Total Exports (2021-25)
- Exhibit 14: Electrical Machinery and Equipment and Parts Thereof, % of World Total (2025)
- Exhibit 15: Interest Rates (August 2021-August 2026)
- Exhibit 16: Exchange Rate and Inflation (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 17: Public Finance (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 18: General Government Debt (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 19: Unemployment Rate (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 20: Annual Average Wages (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 21: Labor Cost Index (2021-28f)
- Exhibit 22: Rural-urban Share of Total Population (2020, 2025, 2030f, 2035f)
- Exhibit 23: Age-group Share of Total Population (2020, 2025, 2030f, 2035f)
- Exhibit 24: Gender Split (2020, 2025, 2030f, 2035f)
- Exhibit 25: Internet Users as a Percentage of Total Population, Mobile and Broadband Penetration Rates (2025)
- Exhibit 26: Number of Patents Granted Per Million Population (2025)
- Exhibit 27: High-technology Exports, % of Manufactured Exports (2024 or Latest Available Year)
- Exhibit 28: Rule of Law Index (Rankings) 2025
- Exhibit 29: Corruption Perceptions Index (Rankings) 2025
- Exhibit 30: Renewable Electricity, Installed Capacity (2021-25)
- Exhibit 31: CO2e Emissions (2021-25)
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Samsung
- Hyundai
- Daewoo
- KIA Motors
